Lens Service\Flush\Cleaning - Conley 5x7 Folding Camera

[AndyMcKay]

I recently picked up a Conley 5x7 Folding Camera in fairly good exterior condition. All hardware moves freely, nothing is bent or binding.

242850

The only issue is the lens. It could use a good cleaning of the internal faces of the elements, and after 110+ years the shutter is pretty sticky. It's my understanding that a good flush w/ contact cleaner can help with this, but first the lend needs to come off. My experience with disassembling large format camera begins and ends with view cameras w/ lenses mounted on swappable lens boards, so easy to remove and clean a lens in that configuration.

My big question is: How would a lens on a camera of this type be removed? Is it threaded on? Does the front standard need to be disassembled to get to a locking ring on the back of the mounting plate?

Any help that anyone can provide would be much appreciated.

[Larry Gebhardt]

If it's like the one I have the shutter is screwed into a threaded flange that's screwed to the chromed plate. Just unscrew the shutter from the front (counterclockwise). The front and back cells will unscrew from the shutter.

[tundra]

I recently picked up a Conley 5x7 Folding Camera in fairly good exterior condition. All hardware moves freely, nothing is bent or binding.

242850

The only issue is the lens. It could use a good cleaning of the internal faces of the elements, and after 110+ years the shutter is pretty sticky. It's my understanding that a good flush w/ contact cleaner can help with this, but first the lend needs to come off. My experience with disassembling large format camera begins and ends with view cameras w/ lenses mounted on swappable lens boards, so easy to remove and clean a lens in that configuration.

My big question is: How would a lens on a camera of this type be removed? Is it threaded on? Does the front standard need to be disassembled to get to a locking ring on the back of the mounting plate?

Any help that anyone can provide would be much appreciated.

I do NOT recommend contact cleaner for this. Nor would I recommend a "flush" of the entire shutter. It gets crud all over the place. I recommend you use an eyedropper with naptha (lighter fluid) in it to surgically clean rotating surfaces, gear interfaces, and so forth.

Also, shutters need very little actual lubrication. Too much will actually slow the shutter down. Again, using a hypodermic needle style oiler to put a small drop here and there is the preferred approach.

[Tin Can]

I have carefully removed both lenses in a cam like that

Clean them gently and reinstall

No need to remove shutter

MAYBE

[chris73]

My little Busch from that era has 2 extremely delicate shutter leaves that i wouldnt dare to use any oil, naphtha or anything near them.
There is a great chance that you are in the same path, so my recommendation is to take apart the shutter and remove the leaves before doing anything else.

If you don't feel confident enough doing this, it might be better to leave it alone...unless someone else can confirm from what material the leaves where made.

[Greg]

I had a similar camera to yours but another make. The shutter was fitted to the back of the chrome front by bent tabs on the back side of the chrome front. They weren't exactly easy to get to but were easy to unbend to remove the shutter. Just go very slowly with a correct tool - I used a screwdriver that its front was bent around 45-60 degrees.